“When I sent my plans and our price for the deepening of the vessel to the Secretary, he immediately awarded us the contract for deepening ours (the ‘Yazoo’), and accepted our price, and notified the eighteen other people that he would give them the same price for deepening theirs. The other contractors would not accept my price, and they denounced me for not having put a ‘higher price on the job,’ when I had the opportunity to do so. I told them that I had estimated that we would make 30 per cent. profit, and I contended that that was enough, notwithstanding we were under the influence of war prices, and that I had been delegated to do what I considered was right. In other words, I held that the Secretary had placed me upon honor. “These eighteen other builders ultimately got higher prices than we did. They made all sorts of claims to the government through their representatives, and made life a burden to the Secretary by showing, or endeavoring to show, him that wages were higher everywhere else in the localities where these vessels were built than they were in Philadelphia. “In fact, every one of the other builders ultimately received higher prices than we did, and later on some were awarded additional sums by act of Congress, notwithstanding that the drawings, specifications, plans, and designs for the alterations were made by me without pay! without even thanks! “Subsequently the Department decided not to alter all alike, and about one-half of them were finished without the turrets, and the big guns were taken out, thereby relieving their builders of the necessity of making them deeper. The decks were finished, and they were designated as a sort of torpedo boat for harbor defence. These vessels, as altered according to my recommendations, would have been efficient factors in the operations in the southern waters if the war had not ended before they were finished. “The ‘Sub-Department’ in New York, with all its investitures and appointments, was abandoned, and the Navy Department took up the monitor matter from that time onward. But the mischief had been done. The service had been debauched and the Treasury robbed of millions, which an intelligent policy from the start might have saved. “During the alterations on the ‘Yazoo,’ the Chester light-draught monitor was sent to our place to be altered. Notwithstanding she had been finished with the reduced weights recommended by Mr. Stimers, she still continued defective, and was sent to our yard to be altered according to my new plan.